hi all i am having trouble getting my harvest to dry due to the shite weather and a dead heater worried about it going rotten before it bloody dries enough to jar,i have bought a small dehume for drying out the volvo before fitting the new headlining but thought about maybe using it in a drobe to help dry the weed,anyone else tried this?if so did it work ok? this is for smoking not oiling or id just do it in the dehydrator,any help welcome,cheers
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I use a big dehumidificator that I bought a year ago to cope with High rh and budrot issues.Can t be of much help except for saying to let a fan make air go through the buds,It Is not Ideal to point directly but if you sort the issues in a matter of days It Is okay to let cold air go through Them,at least you re moving air and trying to avoid fungi spores settle and germinate.
If air Is not hot you are not drying Them too quickly
Another thing I did was cut the buds and disassmble the big clusters to avoid mold formation
Basically you want to bring himidity of the buds out as fast as possible until a certain percentage in the first 2 days,crucial to avoid rot,when the treshold of rot germination has passed It Is possible to let the dry slow down no matter of RH anymore.If the material has not the needed minimum percentage of moisture inside It s impossible for mold spores to germinate.
I have pretty fluffy weed that Is not snapping completely when bent but It has passed the mold germ needs and It Is sitting in a jar for a year or so
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If it worked for the Volvo it should work for weed too.
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Yes, a dehumidifier is great for regulating RH, people often set up automated drying rooms or tents by putting both a humidifier and dehumidifier in there, on controllers keeping an RH band of around 5-10% somewhere between 50-60% depending on temperature
This thread is great, here are some charts to see how drying moves at different setpoints from Dr Allison Justice, who is on Instagram and well worth a follow, she’s awesome!
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I accidentally posted this in the other thread so I’ll just quote it here
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Used correctly to lower humidity to approx 30% would really help out your situation… Slow dried like this for 3wks produces some of the best smoke.
Warning: placing dehumidifier close to the chopped plants might dry them faster, but the resulting product is almost ruined. Had a friend did this, bud on screens and dehumidifiers beneath shooting thru the buds, dried in 48hrs, then nobody would buy it after smoking it. Buds were beautiful in appearance, but the way he dried it destroyed all the trichome heads, thus potency ruined.
Be patient… 2-3wks min… stems should snap, not bend.
Also, remove only the large fan leaf before drying, leave all the others on as they will wrap around the buds and protect them while drying, dry trim after and leave a lot of that on, covered in goodness… so unless selling, smoke it…
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30% RH for three weeks? That’s waaay too dry and long unless I’m misunderstanding something, did you mean 60%? I’ve done three weeks at 60% and it was fine, the weed basically starts curing on the stem, that long at 30% is how I powder up whole plants for dry sifting.
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Yes this is nonsense.
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I’m thinking he meant, get the humidity down to 30% now to prevent the risk of mold, then give it 2 weeks of slow drying. That’s good advice.
All of my grows have been in very wet humid drippy climates with constant fog or constant rain during harvest season. I always have to be really careful with my harvest and drying methods especially with the strains that have big thick colas or rock hard bud clusters.
After chop I have to trim immediately. At least the fan leaves and large guard leaves have to go. Sugar leaf can stay. if the bud is way too shaggy, trim it more so you can see the calyxes.
all the large or extremely dense buds have to get broken down.
I need to have constant ambient airflow in the drying room. You don’t want anything blowing directly on the bud, but you have to make sure there is no stagnant air lingering around your harvest. Maintain constant ambient air circulation.
If needed I run a dehumidifer too, although I don’t have a hygrometer or anything to give a specific number. Sometimes adequate air circulation is all you need. But if it’s raining for days and the windows are foggy with condensation, I need to crank up the dehumidifier to try to keep up with the weather.
After 2 to 4 days like that depending on weather, I drop the temperature to the mid 60s and switch off the fans and dehumidifier. I keep an air filter running on high the whole time.
They get 1 to 2 more weeks like that slow drying in a cold room. This process gives me pretty refined quality flower with no risk of mold after harvest.
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